Tag: Toes to Bar

Quad Sets

I’ve switched up my mobility work the last few days. I think all of the squatting and lunging is doing a lot for my legs and back on its own. After doing the same stretches for a month it’s time for change. I’ve been following Kelly Starrett’s 14-Day Mobility Challenge | 7 Green Lights (linked to day 1). After the 14 days are up, I’ll probably choose an area to focus on for a few weeks, using some of the stuff learned from the videos. Shoulders will probably be where I head.

Slow moving this morning. Didn’t get out to the garage until about 8:30. Warmed up with 1,000 meters on the Ski Erg (4:44.2).

Coffee Squats

I actually finished my coffee before heading out, but close enough.

2 Front Squats + 5 Back Squats

  • 45#
  • 135#
  • 185#

My back was tight and there was fatigue in my legs. Definitely think I’m feeling those pause squats from yesterday and the work done in the metcon. With back squat volume coming with Super Sunday it was time to adjust my plan for the morning. I always superset the upper body work I’ve been doing on Sundays, so today I turned it into a quad set!

IMG_59025 Sets

  • 2 Front Squats (225#)
  • 5 Back Squats (225#)
  • 12 Incline DB Bench Press (45°, 40-45-45-50-50#)
  • 12 JM Press (45-55-55-65-65#)

That worked up a hell of a sweat. Might be interesting to alternate between legs and upper body in a quad set like that. Did not wear a belt at all.

Today was the first time since I’ve been squatting every day I felt I should scale back the plan. Seems like a good way to close out day 28. Well, not really with squats for the day, with more coming in the afternoon.

Nobody showed up today! Not a single person, other than Alex, but he was weightlifting.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 1,000m Row (4:09.5)
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10 Snatch Press (20kg)

Gymnastics & Weightlifting

24:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 3 MU
  • 1 Snatch

That was a really fun EMOM. Didn’t feel in danger of missing any of the muscle-ups. I started with 40 kilos and went up 5 kg every round through. All makes through 90 and then missed the final rep at 95. I had it too, just a little forward and I was able to hold it there for a second, trying to pull it back. Pretty excited about that and ready to test our a max when I’m fresh. I did take some extra time, threw another kilogram on the bar and made 2 PR attempts. Got them overhead no problem, but just didn’t have enough left in my shoulders.

Conditioning

6 Rounds

  • 4x Shuttle Run (40′)
  • 10 Back Squats (135#, no rack)

Sucked even worse than I was expecting. My legs didn’t want to move when I took off running after a few rounds. All sets unbroken and really busted ass in the final round to make sure I got under 6 minutes. Took me 5:53.

I jumped on the Air Dyne for 10:00 just to move after that and in hopes that it’ll help me not get sore. Went 3.02 miles.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 5 Strict T2B
  • 3/3 Turkish Get-ups (44#)

Really took my time today and didn’t leave until after 2. Did Crossover Symmetry Recovery to finish off.

Get Up and Do The Work

Late workout last night throws me off with sleep and recovery, though I guess the two are largely related. Didn’t want to get out to the garage this morning, but I did.

Coffee Squats

Back Squats

  • 20×45#
  • 10×135#
  • 10×155#
  • 10×175#
  • 20×195#

Didn’t even warm-up today. Jumped right in. Felt better than expected. That’s 20# heavier than the set of Super Squats I did last week.

Lunge University

  • 200 Walking Lunges (20# vest)

No stopping allowed. Finished in 7:50.

Then in for the 9am class at CrossFit Intuition.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 900m Row
  • Deadlift
    • 10×45#
    • 6×155#
    • 6×245#

Strength & Skill

10:00 EMOM (alternating)

  • 6 Deadlifts (245#)
  • 10 T2B

Damn that felt heavy. Wore a belt to protect my back.

Conditioning

12-10-8-6-4-2

  • HSPU
  • Burpee Box Jump Overs (24″)

Gotta manage that handstand push-up fatigue. Went 6-6, 4-3-3, 3-3-2, 3-3, 2-2, and 2 on the wall. Finished at 9:59.

Midline

4 Rounds NFT

  • 2/2 Turkish Get-ups (44#)
  • 12 Russian Twists (44#)

Need these TGUs for my shoulders.

Cool Down

  • 2,000m Row (8:57.3)
  • Crossover Symmetry Plyometric

CrossFit Games Open Workouts 15.1 & 15.1a

Had the day off work today since House of Cards season 3 was also released and I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on getting any work done along with that and thinking about the Open. Got to the gym just before 5:30 and started warming up.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Stretching
  • Empty barbell work
  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 2 C&J (115#)
  • 1 C&J (145#)
  • 1 C&J (165#)

Open Workouts 15.1 & 15.1a

9:00 AMRAP

  • 15 T2B
  • 10 Deadlift (115#)
  • 5 Snatch (115#)

Immediately to…
6:00

  • Establish a max C&J

I came up with a strategy and couldn’t have executed it any better. Went 4-4-4-3 on all rounds of T2B except at the end when I went 5-3 to finish. I’d drop from the bar, take a step, turn around, and get right back up. I did all of the deadlifts unbroken, but slow and with controlled breathing as almost a rest period and so that I wouldn’t spike my heart rate. I did all single power snatches, but was right on the bar as soon as it settled on the ground. Grip didn’t become an issue and my hips were just starting to fatigue in the last full round. I think if I had gone 5-5-5 like I was thinking last night, I would have had to break them up more than that in about the 4th round. I ended up getting 5 full rounds plus 8 toes to bar for 158 total reps. My goal was to get 5 rounds, so I’m really happy with that.

I quickly put my shirt back on for the grip on the bar on my chest. Loaded up 207#. After waiting almost 2 minutes, I power cleaned it, and push jerked to get on the scoreboard. Then I changed up my original plan because I knew the jerks were going to be shaky. I had planned on doing 227-237-247, but wanted to make one less attempt than that. So I went right to 237#, which was the minimum I wanted to hit. I quickly changed into weightlifting shoes and put on the belt. Made that attempt with about 2 minutes left on the clock. Power clean again, but split jerk. Put 247# on the bar for the last attempt and waited until 20 seconds left. Power clean again and a pretty shaky split jerk, but I controlled it and made the lift. Success!

Really happy with my scores for week 1. All of the gymnastics work we’ve been doing on the bars has paid off. My grip wasn’t an issue at all and my T2B didn’t die out like they have in past years.

2015 Open Goals

I beat 26.1% of the men in 2012, 80% in 2013, and 82.9% in 2014. It’s been a nice climb. My goal for this year is to beat 86% of the men. I’m not sure how the percentages might end up being different due to the scaled division, but that may not be a high enough goal. If that’s the case, I’ve had the number of beating 88% in my head. We shall see what the leaderboard looks like after week 1, especially with 2 very different workouts in the scoring mix.

Dubs on Point

Moved Super Sunday to noon instead of 11 starting today. I warmed up with a 1,000m row in 4:28 and various stretching.

Gymnastics

“Death By” Pull-ups

  • 1 Pull-up in the first 1 min
  • 2 Pull-ups in the second 1 min
  • 3 Pull-ups in the third 1 min
  • Continuing this for as long as you are able

Made it through 17 and got 14 of 18 for a total of 167 pull-ups! Was hoping to get to round 15 or 16, so huge win. The last time I did something like this was back in November of 2012 and it started with 2 and went up by 2 every minute. Got 16 + 17 for a total of 89 that day. Big improvement and I’m about 12 pounds heavier now. Wore the leather grips so I wouldn’t risk ripping my palms going into the Open.

butterflies-human-pull-ups

Conditioning

4:00 AMRAP

  • Burpee Box Jumps (24″)

Got 11 in the first minute, then fell off pace a bit, but wanted to get to 40, so I stepped it up in the last minute and managed to get 41 total.

Chipper

  • 100 DU
  • 25 T2B
  • 50 Plyo Lunges
  • 50 HR Push-ups
  • 50 Plyo Lunges
  • 25 T2B
  • 100 DU

I went unbroken on the first 100 dubs in 48 seconds! Couldn’t believe it was that fast. On the toes to bars I started with a set of 5 and then did 5 sets of 4 both times. I think I went 16-18-16 and 20-16-14 on the plyo lunges. All sets of 5s on the push-ups. I really wanted to hit a bit set of double unders at the end. Started feeling the burn at 50 but kept it going. Made it to 95 and then messed up! So close. Total time was 12:44.

Shoulders = wrecked! Did Crossover Symmetry Recovery. Switching me schedule again so that Monday and Thursday are rest days. Will be doing the Open workouts on Friday nights.

Burnin’ Burpees

Didn’t make it up for the 9am since I was up late watching the Duke – North Carolina game. Little conditioning work in my office before lunch.

10:00 EMOM

  • 10 Target Burpees

I used the ceiling and did a double palm touch to it. Wasn’t wearing shoes and was about an inch shy of being able to touch with my finger tips, so the palm slap should have been higher than the 6″ standard. All rounds done in 26 seconds or less. My lungs were really burning after that!

Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • Inch Worms
  • Hip Stretch
  • Child’s Pose
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×155#
  • 5×265#
  • 3×335#
  • 3×375#
  • 3×415#
  • 3×445#
  • 3×465#
  • 3×395#

Felt my low back pull during the 3rd rep with 465. Sonofabitch!! Worked up a little faster in weight than I normally do for some reason. Hopefully I feel ok tomorrow.

Skill

Mini-Flight Simulator
10-15-20-25-30-25-20-15-10

  • Unbroken DU

I think I had 2, maybe 3 total misses. Took me 2:55. Tried a few triple unders after catching my breath.

Conditioning

21-15-9

  • Deadlift (205#)
  • Box Jump (24″)
  • T2B

Went 12-9, 9-6, and 9 on the deadlifts. Stepped down on every box jump. I don’t know what it is about jumping after deadlifts, but the legs just don’t want to work and I didn’t feel like biffing it on the box. I went 8-7-6, 9-6, and 7-2 on toes to bars. Good burner workout. Finished in 6:28.

Made sure to get back on the Reverse Hyper for another 3x10x210# after those deadlifts.

Retest 12.3

Didn’t sleep well last night. I didn’t realize the heat was still up on the main floor, which warmed the upstairs too much and I was hot all night. Whoops.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 250m Row
    • 10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • 5×45# Muscle Snatch
  • 5×95# Snatch
  • 3×115# Snatch

Conditioning

  • 5-4-3-2-1 Squat Snatch (135#)
  • 50-40-30-20-10 DU

Pat Sherwood and I must be on the same wavelength, because he posted a very similar workout for CrossFit Linchpin earlier this week.

Maybe he has access to my training plan because I’ve had this programmed for 2 weeks. Came up with it based on my love for “Annie”. 🙂 My thinking with the rep scheme for the snatches is that it would be a good challenge to try to do them all touch-n-go and I don’t snatch below parallel enough, hence the squat variation. I made it through each set without dropping the bar, and it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. Finished in 5:18, with a couple misses on the set of 50 dubs.

Accessory

7 Sets

  • 5 Pendlay Rows
  • 3 Evil Wheels
  • 60-90s Rest

Went 135-155-155-175-175-175-175# on the rows. Slowed myself down on the evil wheels in the last couple of rounds since they are getting easy for me.

More Conditioning

CrossFit Open 12.3 – 18:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 12 Shoulder to Overhead (115#)
  • 9 T2B

Time to start getting the feel for that dark place we go to during the Open workouts. Figured this would be a good measuring stick due to its length. Back in 2012 during the Open I did 5+21. Got 8+1 today. Died hard on the box jumps in the 8th round. Went 7-5 on every set of push jerks and 5-4 on every set of toes to bars except the 8th round where I did 3 quick sets of 3. Definitely a lot of room for improvement with shorter breaks between sets and movements. Wouldn’t mind seeing this come up as a repeat workout this year.

Accessory

2 Sets

  • 30 Shoulder Taps

Shoulders were pretty beat up.

Repping Singles

Got to the gym early to put in some extra work.

Row

  • 2,000m @ 1:55 pace

Half way through I wanted to cut back to 1:57, so I know it was a good pace to have. Held on and was just under with a time of 7:39.8.

Gymnastics

I took this slomo before getting started.

E15S until fail

  • 1 MU

Got through 23, or 5:45, before missing. Amazing how hard they get just doing singles. Back in August I got 21 at 5# lighter bodyweight.

I was going to do some C&J EMOM work, but Kevin told me he’d do a partner workout with me if I created it, so I threw them in the metcon instead. We worked on goats for 20-30 minutes.

HSPU

  • 3 @ 2.5″ Deficit (Strict)
  • 2×3 @ 3.5″ Deficit (Strict)
  • 2×3 @ 4.5″ Deficit (Strict)

Conditioning

20:00 Partner AMRAP

  • 20 C&J (135#)
  • 30 Burpees
  • 40 T2B
  • 50 Russian KBS (62#)

Kevin used 95#. We split the clean & jerks, burpees, and toes to bars up into sets of 5 each for the first two rounds and the kettlebell swings into 15-10 each. I did my sets of 5 unbroken in the first round and my first set in the 2nd round, then quick singles. He hit the wall in the 3rd round during C&J so I started doing more than half the reps and some bigger sets of burpees and T2B, then I did 30 swings before letting him finish out. We had 1 swing left when time ran out.

Cool Down

  • 10:00 Row

Nice and easy with a pace around 2:18-2:19. Went 2,157 meters.

In the month of January I went almost 145 kilometers or about 90 miles.

  • Air Dyne – 88,200m
  • Row – 38,377m
  • Ski – 18,214m

Damn Quad

My quad is very angry after the squats yesterday. Played in a cornhole tournament last night, but I doubt that has anything to do with it.

cornhole-courts

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row – 3:59
  • Stretching

Gymnastics

4 Sets

  • Max T2B
  • 1:00 Rest

I did 25-13-11-10, which is a new max set PR and better than the 22-12-12-10 I did last time.

Conditioning

A fun MAP training session today.

10:00 AMRAP @ 80%

  • 150m Row
  • 10 HR Push-ups
  • 10 Russian KBS (53#)

Did 6 rounds plus 140 meters. The push-ups started to get slower each round.

3:00 Rest

10:00 AMRAP @ 80%

  • 5 Burpees
  • 7 Box Jump, step down (24″)
  • 9 Deadlifts (135#)

I thought I was going to cry after the first box jump it hurt my quad so much. It seemed to loosen up or I was favoring the other leg a ton after a few reps. Completed 6 rounds plus the burpees and box jumps.

3:00 Rest

10:00 AMRAP @ 80%

  • 30 DU
  • 5 Strict Ring Dips
  • 10 Plate Russian Twists (35#)

Felt the quad a bit when I started double unders, but turned out fine. Finished 7 rounds plus 12 dubs.

I really wanted to OHS but I couldn’t do an air squat without wincing and transferring most of my weight to my left leg.

Skill

3 Sets

  • 40 Shoulder Taps

275# Super Squats

Woke up with a headache, so went back to sleep and skipped the 9am class. Out in the garage around 3pm.

Warm-up

  • 1,500m Ski Erg

Felt good. Took me 6:47.6.

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10 T2B
  • Evens: 15 HR Push-ups

All unbroken. The push-ups got slow at the end of the last two sets, but I never stopped.

Strength

Back Squats

  • 10×45#
  • 5×115#
  • 5×185#
  • 3×225#
  • 3×255#
  • 20×275# (PR)

Super Squats are brutal and make you dig deep. I have a love/hate relationship with them. This was a 15# PR over this summer.

Accessory

3 Sets NFT

  • 15 MU Pulldowns (blue, 7’3″ bar, 5.5″ seat)
  • 15 GHD Sit-ups
  • 15 GHD Reverse Hypers

In just 2-3 weeks the pulldowns have improved a ton. I smacked myself in the forehead on one today I was being so explosive with them. Excited to try a strict muscle-up again now. Only went to parallel on the sit-ups and didn’t use a band for resistance on the reverse hypers. After the squats I didn’t want to put much more stress on my back.

No Kip For You

Went to the gym around 11.

Row

  • 12:00 @ 5k pace (1:57)

I made it 3,062 meters. Would have been under the 1:57 pace (Was 1:57.7 I think) if I didn’t stop and take off my hoodie in the middle.

Gymnastics

4 Sets

  • Max T2B
  • 1:00 Rest

Stopped to hang and get some more reps during each set. Didn’t stay on the bar long enough to cause any hand rips though. I did 22, 12, 12, and 10 reps. Not very happy with the first set (even though it’s a PR) or the big drop off for the remainder of the sets.

Conditioning

Took a little break to catch my breath and then did 10 hang power cleans (45#) and 5 power cleans (95#) to get ready for the next piece.

E3M 30:00

  • 20 DU
  • 5 Power Cleans (135#)
  • 200m Row

I missed a double under in the first round after 8 and one in the last round after 2. Lack of concentration for both. All other sets were unbroken. All power cleans were touch-n-go reps, though I did feel like they were slowing down around the 5th round. My pace goal was to stay just under 1:45/500m for each row and then I pushed harder on the last one with about a 1:35 pace. I was getting about a minute and 40-45 seconds of rest each round which was plenty to recover. Should have done 250m rows.

More Gymnastics

I wanted to try a real gymnastics kip on the rings, but couldn’t come close to getting over the top. They make it look so easy!

Then I setup a PVC pipe with green bands around a bar to help build some strength for bar muscle-ups.

3 Sets

  • 10 Bar MU Pulldowns (green banded PVC)

I kept the PVC up against the rig supports to simulate it staying in the same plane like the bar does. I don’t think the exercise is going to transfer as well as it does for the ring pulldowns, but it should help some. I did one bar muscle-up pretty easily just to see if I still could. It’s been at least a few months since trying one. I just need to work on the skill to create comfort with it. We might see them in the Open this year.